Rail.



No- 830,623. PATENTED SEPT. 11, 1906 G. B. TAYLOR & G. B. VOYNOW.

RAIL.

APPLICATION FILED APE.7.1904.

FIZZ I WITNZSSES:. fizzy? I Alf Amy/van;

isting railway systems.

. wherein the uppermost member is a tread ar- -1ngflange pro ecting below the level of said ITED STATES PATEN T ()FFICE. a cnoscs B. TAYLOR AND CONSTANTINE B. VOYNOW, or PHILADELPHIA.

PENNSYLVANIA.

RAIL.

Specification of Letters Patent. 1904 Serial N o. 1 94,035. Divided and. this application filed I Patented Sept. 1 1, 1 906. Original application filed February 17,

April 7, 1904i Serial No. 202,025.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

I wholly lateral with relation to the vertical Be it known that we, GEORGE B. TAYLOR webs. Hence the stress of this whole traflic and CONSTANTINE B. VoYNow, residents of is unequally supported, and the normal wear the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennof runnin .is upon a relatively shallow part sylvania, have invented certain new and usei and unduTy destructive.

ful Improvements in Rails, whereof the fol- As hereinafter described, our invention lowing is a specification, reference being had comprises a rail provided with a relatively to the accompanying drawings. I broad and thick tread, symmetrically disp The present application is a division of our application Serial No. 194,035, filed F ebruary 17, 1904, for Letters Patent of the United tates for improvements in railway systems, and relates particularly to the improved girder-rail described and shown in said earlier application.

The purpose and effect of our improvements may be more readily explained by first briefly adverting to certain characteristics of the ordinary girder-rails as embodied in extages incident to their employment.

In modern streetstance, there is but one tread on therail both the girder type, for cars and ordinary vehicles, and that tread is disposed in such relation to the vertical web of the rail that the load is uniformly and correctly transmitted to the web and base. Said tread member may be relatively thick vertically, so as to insure long life. The distribution of the stress at the joint-plates is to the greatest advantage. The rail'is susceptible of universal use for city or suburban purposes and special work at crossings, sidings, connections, &c. Such rails at crossings present a continuous uniform plane surface for the passage of the wheels in both directions, and thus avoid the wear and tear upon the track structure, the car-wheels, motors', and other equipment incident to the j arring passage of cars over crossings formed of the ordinary rails having recesses in their tread-surfaces. Moreover, said improved rails being disposed with their retainingflanges toward the inside of the track the arrangement is the reverse of the ordinary arrangement above described, and flangeless similar recesses must be made in the railcar-wheels may be employed with all of the treads at sidings or connecting branches beeconomy in initial cost and cost of maintetween diflerent tracks. The effect of such nance incident thereto. Irrespective of the construction is that the car-wheels jar into general beneficial results thus afforded a conand out of each of said recesses in traversing servative estimate drawn from actual experithe tracks to the detriment both of the ence in the city of-Philadelphia indicates that tracks and the car equipment. In the ordii the immediate financial advantages incident nary construction described the wheels of to the employment of wagons and other similar vehicles run upon I would be as follows: a saving in renewals for the depressed flanges of the rails, which are l intersections and other special work amount posed with relation to the plane of its vertical web and to the cross-section of its base and aving a lateral retaining-flange extending along one edge of the tread and projecting above the latter so far as to prevent displacement of a flangeless car-wheel, but preferably of such width as not to afford a running surface for ordinary vehicles.

Before describing our improvements in detail we would point out some of the advanrailways the rails are of ranged to support a car-wheel having a retaintread to laterally engage the same. The head of the rail is supported by a vertical web and horizontal base. Said web is not, however, symmetrically disposed beneath said tread, since a portion of the latter overhangs the web at one side. Below the level of the tread and on the side of the vertical web opposite to the overhangingportion of the tread is a horizontal flange of such extent and configuration as to receive and support the wheels of wagons and similar vehicles in wholly lateral relation to said vertical web. In the ordinary track structure the upwardlyprojecting treads of the rails are arranged outside of the depressed flanges, and at each 1 crossing the treads of the rails are necessarily cut away to form recesses of such extent as to permit the passage of the retaining-flanges of the Wheels in both directions, and of course For inp ing to two hundred thousand dollars per year, a saving of track repairs wholly independent of such special work amounting to seventy-five thousand dollars a year, the saving in the cost of repaving incident to repairs of special work and rails amounting to forty thousand dollars per year, a saving in the cost of repairing motors of seventy-five thousand dollars per year, a saving in the cost of repairing and renewing wheels amounting to ninety thousand dollars per year, and a saving in the cost of repairing car bodies and trucks amounting to forty thousand dollars per year.

We are of course aware of the enormous variety of rail-sections which have been suggested or attempted, and we recognize an apparent simple aspect of the contemplated change when viewed from what may be termed a popular standpoint as distinguished from that of the engineer trained in the art to which the invention directly relatesl We have therefore presented at some length the considerations which we believe will be recognized by engineers skilled in the art as affording evidence of a radical departure, the apparent simplicity of which by no means represents the novelty of the conception or the practical consequences of its embodiment.

Our invention. comprehends the various novel features of construction and arrangement hereinafter more definitely specified.

In the drawings, Figure I is atransverse sectional view taken on the line I I in Fig. II, showing a pair of our improved rails embodied in a track structure of the character herein contemplated and in cooperative relation with a pair of improved double-tread wheels. Fig. II is a plan view of special work embodying our improved rail of the cross-sectional configuration shown in Fig. III. Fig. III is a transverse sectional view of one of our improved rails, taken on the line III III in Fig. II.

In said drawings, 1 is a section of road-bed of the improved type provided with rails 2, whose heads 3 have wheel-treads 4 centrally disposed with respect to their vertical webs 5, which support said heads in connection with the base-flange 7 ,which are centrally related to said web 5. The wheel-retaining flanges 9 project above the level of said wheel-treads 4 along the inner longitudinal edges thereof.

As shown in Fig. III, the outer longitudinal edge 10 of the rail-head 3 is beveled; but this is only desirable to insure that the pavingblocks 12, which are rammed to the lower level of said edge 10, shall not project above the tread 4.

Referring to Fig. I, the car-wheels 15, which are coupled by the axle 16, comprise treads 17, which are adapted for operative engagement with ordinary rails (of the character above described) and treads 18, which are adapted for operative engagementwith the wheel-treads 4 of the new rails 2, as shown in said figure. As indicated in Fig. I, said wheeltreads 17 and 18 are conveniently formed of different diameters, and the wheels are so disposed upon the axles that their larger diameters are adjacent to each other and supported by the rail-treads 4, upon which they are retained by the flanges 9.

In Fig. II, which shows special work arranged for the intersection of straight tracks and curved tracks, both pairs of tracks comprise our improvedrails of the cross-sectional configuration shown in Fig. III, and the treads 4 thereof extend in one continuous common plane, so that the wheels may pass freely across said intersection in either direction and upon either pair of tracks without jolting.

Although the form of our improved rails shown in Fig. II is adapted for special work, as above,described, where such work comprises tracks which have sharp curves we prefer to increase the height of the wheel-rot aining flanges 9, as indicated by the dotted lines 20 in Fig. III, so as to withstand the extraordinary imp act incident to the traverse of vehicle-wheels around such curves.

We do not desire to limit ourselves to the precise details of construction and arrangement herein set forth, as it is obvious that various modifications may be made therein without dep arting from the essential features of our invention.

We claimgreater height than width, comprising a vertical web, extending more than one-half of the height of the rail; base-flanges projecting symmetrically 'upon opposite sides of said web; a head symmetrically disposed upon opposite sides of said vertical web and provided with a wheel-tread, extending in a plane parallel with. the bottom plane of said baseflange; and, a wheel-retaining flange on said head, projecting above said tread along one 1. A straight rail of the girder type, of

longitudinal edge thereof, substantially as set forth.

2. A straight rail of the girder type, of greater heightthan width, comprising a vertical web, extending more than one-half of the height of the rail; base-flanges projecting symmetrically upon opposite sides of said web; a head symmetrically disposed up on opposite sides of said vertical web and provided with a wheel-tread; and, a wheel-retaining flange on said head, projecting above said tread along one longitudinal edge thereof, substantially as set forth.

3. A straight rail of the girder type, of greater height than width, comprising a vertic al web extending more than one-half of the height of the rail; base-flanges projecting equidistantly upon opposite sides of said web; ahead pro ecting equidistantly upon opposite sides of said Web and provided With 1 In testimony whereof We have hereunto a Wheel-tread extending in a plane parallel signed our names, at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- IO With the bottom plane of said base-flanges; a Vania, this 6th day of April, 1904.

Wheel-retaining flange on said head projeet- GEORGE B. TAYLOR;

ing above said tread along one longitudinal CONSTANTIN E B. VOYN OW. edge thereof; and, the edge of said head op- Witnesses:

posite to said Wheel-retaining flange being HENRY B. NIoHoLs,

beveled, substantiallyas set forth. BENJ. STOTT. 

